Nigeria student massacre a fallout of campus politics?

Maiduguri: The massacre in Nigerian town of Mubi which killed at least 25 students is suspected to have been triggered by campus politics after an election at Federal Polytechnic College, reports emerged Wednesday.

Gunmen wearing military uniforms barged into students accommodations outside the campus of the Federal Polytechnic Mubi College, killing students by calling out their names, leading the police to conclude that it was a “work of insiders” and not Boko Haram.

The massacre comes a week after elections were held and police are hinting that the attack might have been staged by the students, as a fallout of campus politics.

Adamawa state police spokesman Ibrahim Muhammad said, “Boko Haram (attackers) open fire sporadically,” said Muhammad. “In this case, the attackers called their victims by name and left other people in the room alone. This is not the modus operandi of Boko Haram.”

Another official, Yushau Shuaib, the spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency also reached at a similar conclusion when he said in a statement, “The crisis in Mubi is suspected to have been fuelled by campus politics after an election at the (college)”.

Of all 25 killed, 19 were students of Federal Polytechnic Mubi, three were students of another college, and remaining comprised of an ex-soldier, a security guard and an elderly man, said Ibrahim Muhammad.

However, the total number of those killed couldn’t be verified as some residents said that 40 people were shot or stabbed by the gunmen.

Mubi is a Nigerian town situated along the border with Borno state, where Boko Haram have been prominent, as they had also staged an uprising in the capital Maiduguri.

Boko Haram has launched frequent attacks in Maiduguri and, to a lesser degree, in Mubi. However, there was no claim of responsibility on Tuesday for either of the student attacks.

The college attack follows the killing Saturday of three students outside a university campus, about 100 miles (170 kilometers) away, in the city of Maiduguri, Boko Haram’s spiritual home.

Boko Haram’s deadly campaign has targeted mosques, churches, schools, government buildings and, more recently, phone masts worth millions of dollars, but targeting students and killing them so brutally would be new for the sect.